Find Grace Amidst Strife

Most problems in life are little more than speed bumps.  They can seem all consuming in the present but in time are generally forgotten.  Why do we let them derail us so completely.

 

Have you ever seen someone run into a little problem and they completely lose composure.  For some the problems of the moment affect them for hours or even days later.  Some mistakes in life cause temporary consequences and some cause long term consequences.  The sage knows to feel the emotion proportional to the situation.

 

Not all mistakes are sins and sometimes serious sins seem to have no consequence at all, at least in this life.  For example break your significant others favorite coffee cup on accident.  Not a sin, yet could cause an upsetting conversation or other consequences.  Covet your neighbors car and his way of life and you are in fact sinning.  Yet who are you hurting?

 

Well the truth is you are hurting yourself.  When you covet another you are not living your own life.  We have blessings all about us yet we can be so focused on something that doesn't belong to us that we lose sight of what's important.

 

To me the greatest mistakes are the ones that not only hurt us but other people as well.  A person drinks and drives and causes an accident that kills an innocent family.  That is a huge mistake!  A sin as well.

 

Yet even this atrocious act can and would be forgiven by God through the sacrifice his son Jesus made on the cross.  So let's say this drunken killer begs forgiveness and is forgiven.  What should he do?  Should he change his life, stop drinking, make amends to the surviving friends and family?  Without question the answer is yes.  He should first beg God's forgiveness, then forgive himself.  Then accept that the surviving friends and family are feeling the pain of loss and torment and they may not forgive him as easily as God does.  In the presence of those he has harmed he should always be contrite.  I do not mean he should carry that poison in his heart, for he has been forgiven.  But when you are in the presence of one who suffers, particularly if you are the cause of that suffering, compassion dictates you open yourself to their pain and suffering. That is love and that is what Jesus would do and in fact did though he never caused suffering.

 

I have seen so many have a little something go wrong in the morning and it just seems to taint the whole day for them.  They spend the hours of the day dwelling on the mistake or problem.  They miss all the blessings that come after. 

 

A minute is not an hour and an hour is not a day.  Do not let something that happens in a minute ruin the rest of your time on this Earth.  This is grace..  True grace is accepting that your are but a frail human living in an imperfect world.  Both you and the world are infested with sin.  But in spite of this sin miracles are happening all around us.

 

A small mistake should never blind you to the greater miracle.  Do not stare at the broken pieces of the coffee cup on the floor and miss the beauty of your significant other.  Do not complain about stepping in a puddle and miss the wide world happening all around you.

 

Our mortal life is temporary and brief.  In either Heaven or Hell our spirit lives forever. Would you like your immortality to be good and wholesome in the presence and wonder of God.  Perhaps Hell is just people walking around complaining about the sins' they've committed and about the sins that have been committed against them.  Perhaps the Devil wants us so focused on our problems that for all time they are the only thing we see.


"For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink ; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? " Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? " And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life span?"
Matthew 11:28-30